The Christian Post, an evangelical newspaper, once again features Franklin Graham defending Donald Trump, this time for his comments about the fatal attack in Charlottesville by a white supremacist (here). Franklin Graham said, “Shame on the politicians who are trying to push blame on President Trump for what happened in Charlottesville, VA. That's absurd. What about the politicians such as the city council who voted to remove a memorial that had been in place since 1924, regardless of the possible repercussions?”

The statue in question was of Robert E. Lee. Franklin Graham warned of the repercussions of removing a tribute to the head of the Confederate army, much as his father warned Martin Luther King of the consequences of pushing for an end to Jim Crow. Franklin Graham implies that protesting against racism drives white supremacists and Neo-Nazis into an uncontrollable rage, like waving a red flag in front of a bull, and people should just know better.

Regardless of the truth or the righteousness of this claim, that is not what most people are blaming Trump for. Most people - including three members of Trump’s business council – criticized Trump’s failure to condemn hate crimes by white supremacists. Initially, Trump only condemned violence "on many sides," implying that both sides were responsible. He drew lavish praise from Neo-Nazis for his position, and widespread criticism from most other groups – and not just “politicians” as Franklin Graham claims. Two days later, Trump finally condemned racism, but many feel that was too little, too late.

The real point is that both Franklin Graham and The Christian Post misrepresented the situation. They claimed that people blamed Trump for the attack, rather than his weak criticisms of the attack. Graham is all too eager to blame the problem on Satan. But in case you didn’t know, Fred Trump, Donald’s father, was arrested in Queens at a KKK rally in the 1920s (here). Later, Fred and Donald settled a federal lawsuit for racial discrimination in their apartments. If Satan is behind this, he’s been guiding the Trump family for a century. But that doesn’t excuse Trump. That just means he’s a minion of Satan.